Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said earlier this week that roughly 500,000 comments submitted during the debate over the controversial repeal of Obama-era net neutrality rules were linked to Russian email addresses.

The disclosure was made in a statement filed this week in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted by The New York Times and BuzzFeed. In the statement, Pai refers to "the half-million comments submitted from Russian e-mail addresses."

Pai's acknowledgement that Russians played a role in last year's net neutrality debate shows how widespread Russia's campaign to influence US democracy extends. US intelligence and law enforcement have accused Russian groups of interfering in the 2016 presidential election by using stolen identities to pose as Americans on Facebook and Instagram, creating Facebook groups, buying divisive ads and posting inflammatory images.

It seems groups were employing some of the same techniques to influence the net neutrality debate, which resulted in a record number of comments being submitted to the FCC. But even as comments were pouring in, public policy watchdogs were sounding alarms.